Saturday night, me and the hubs met up with my sister and her boyfriend and headed to Memphis. We had tickets to the 8:00 showing of The Book of Mormon at the Orpheum, and the plan was to have dinner on Beale and just hang out until show time. We made it downtown and parked and ended up not having a lot of time to kill, so we just ducked into one of the first places we came to–King’s Palace Cafe. I loved the atmosphere, the live music, and they actually had something I could eat! I always worry about that when we go out someplace I’m not familiar with. I mean, I can always get a salad, but damnit I like to EAT. haha Everyone else had their BBQ and burgers, but I had a delicious pasta primavera–pasta, marinara, broccoli, zucchini, and yellow squash… perfectly veg-friendly!
So anyway while we were sitting there, my sister Kim realized she left our tickets in the truck, and as luck would have it, it had started raining. The longer we sat there and joked about who had to walk back in the rain to get them, the harder it rained. While we were waiting on our check, the rain stopped, so D and Kim’s boyfriend left us girls there to take care of the bill while they went back to the truth to get our tickets. They hadn’t been gone but a couple of minutes when the heavens opened up. haha It started raining harder than ever. With a little thunder and lightning thrown in just for good measure. The two of them camped out in the truck and Kim and I stayed at the restaurant waiting for it to let up, but the radar showed absolutely no chance of that shit happening anytime soon, so we finally all just gave up and made a run for it. The guys didn’t have far to go, but Kim and I had a couple of blocks with a couple of crosswalks to deal with! Since it was The Book of Mormon playing, there were lots of Mormons standing out on the corners handing out pamphlets and stuff. They were so sweet! They offered to walk with us the rest of the way and share their umbrellas with us, but at that point we were like, “Thanks, y’all, but I think we’re a lost cause. It would be impossible for us to get any wetter than we are!” When we finally made it under the awning at the Orpheum, there wasn’t a dry stitch on us!
Being soaked to the bone in a cold theater made for a very uncomfortable 2-1/2 hours!! But, you guys, the show made it SO WORTH IT! Even D liked it and trust me when I tell you that musicals are SOOOOOO not D’s thing. I’ve never gotten him to go to one with me before, but I knew he’d be an easy sell on this one because it was written by the creators of South Park. The whole show had a very “South Park” feel to it with its off-color comedy, satire, and overly exaggerated…well… everything.
We only bought the tickets a couple of weeks ago, so pickins were slim. We took the only four tickets we could get that were all together. They just happened to be the four WORST seats in the venue. haha I mean that in the most literal sense. We were in the last seats in the last row of the upper gallery. So we can now say with absolute certainty that there isn’t a bad seat in the Orpheum. Even in the worst seats, this was our view of the stage.
It was positively hilariously fantastic, and I WILL see it again. I want to tell you some of my favorite parts, but I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone (because I know for a fact a couple of you will be seeing it soon too!), so I won’t. But seriously, isn’t ANYTHING with a character named General Butt-Fucking Naked worth going to see? I think so.
What about you? Are musicals your thing? What have you seen? I’ve seen Phantom (x 3), Les Miserable, Wicked (x2), Chicago, and now this one. A Christmas Story will be touring in November, and I’ll definitely be going to that one too!
herbie on the run 